Coyotes finish season under a cloud

NHL playoffs 2012: Phoenix Coyotes finish season under a cloud

The Phoenix Coyotes have long been a magnet for harsh words, tales of conspiracy, lies — not necessarily damned lies — and statistics, and that is more or less how their season ended. It went in the books as a 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 of the Western Conference final Tuesday night, in Glendale, Ariz., but the Coyotes died, in part, as they have lived; under a cloud, in a storm, in a messy place.

Which is not, of course, to say it was fair. It was not fair, but that is life and geography for you. The Coyotes had played a whale of a game, after recording their only win of the series in Game 4, and in an apt metaphor for the very existence of the franchise, were deep into extra time. The Kings have bloomed into a juggernaut in this post-season, losing two games in three rounds to the top three seeds in the West. The Kings took a 3-0 lead in the series. All Phoenix could do, it seemed, was to postpone the inevitable.

And then came the crap — an apparent high-sticking offence missed; a delay of game, missed; and then Dustin Brown’s railroading of Phoenix defenceman Michal Roszival, whom he hit in a way that left Roszival unable to skate off under his own power. It was not quite knee-on-knee, but close enough to do damage. Brown raised his elbow and leaned in, with his shoulder and leg both. It looked nothing like the hits that Brown usually throws in that situation, in which he tries to deflate lungs by throwing his shoulder into a chest. Kneeing, by the way, does not require contact with the opponent’s knee in the NHL rulebook. It just requires that you use yours.

No penalty was called, though, and 13 seconds after Rozsival was carried off the ice, a puck bounced to Dustin Penner in the slot and he buried it, and the Coyotes imploded. Goaltender Mike Smith threw his stick towards the officials; several Coyotes berated them as they left the ice. Coyotes Shane Doan and Martin Hanzal confronted Brown in the handshake line, which is usually the last bastion of civility.

“How do you miss that?” captain Shane Doan told reporters. “I mean, Rosie’s knee is blown out? How do you possibly miss that? … I bit my tongue the whole playoffs. I look back on the last two games, and I still haven’t found where I got my three penalties. I have absolutely no idea where they came from or what they were calling. It’s hard, because you don’t want to take anything from L.A. because they played unbelievable. And give them all the credit — but I mean, uncle. Are you fricking kidding me? Uncle.”

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“[The officials] know we don’t have an owner, they know we don’t have anyone to back us up, so maybe that makes it easier for them to make calls against us,” defenceman Keith Yandle said.

“If Raffi Torres gets 25 games for his hit during the play then [Brown] ought to be done forever,” Smith said.

Since Hanzel and Doan have both been ejected for boarding penalties this spring, and since a boarding penalty, executed in the worst way, can break a player’s neck, and since Torres is known for scrambling brains rather than knees — and since knees are easier to fix — that Smith statement is orbiting Pluto, somewhere. As for alleging conspiracy when your owner is, in fact, the National Hockey League, which also employs the referees in question — well, if it’s true, the non-call is coming from inside the house.

But that does not mean Phoenix did not have their season ended by a non-call, and now the question is how it is going to actually end for the Coyotes, and for Glendale. Two weeks ago the NHL announced it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell Phoenix to a group led by former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison. As the Coyotes were being eliminated, Glendale City Council was voting 4-3 to approve a budget that would pay Jamison’s group US$17-million next year to manage the arena, then US$20-million per year through 2017, then US$15-million after that.

It is a transparent subsidy to the team from a city that cut 2% of its workforce in an attempt to close a US$35-million budget shortfall, with some reports out of Arizona speculating that more could be coming. A tax increase is also being considered. The Goldwater Institute may want a word.

It is a disaster, no matter how it ends, no matter what angry words are spoken, and from where. The Coyotes lost US$37-million last year, which was mitigated by the US$25-million the NHL squeezed out of Glendale, which meant that a city with budget problems and a population of 227,000 paid for a team whose average attendance this season was 12,240, last in the NHL, and wants to keep doing so.

It is not the fault of the players, or the coaches, or the front office, who did truly astounding work this season. It is not the fault of those fans in Arizona who love the Coyotes, because no fan can force others to share their passion.

But it makes no logical sense to force this team to stay somewhere where the math does not work. It is deplorable that the NHL is pushing for a deal that will cost a city municipal services. It is astounding how poorly Glendale political leadership has bungled this, beginning to end. If a deal is closed, a lot of people will lose. Of course, people will lose if they leave, too.

And there is a cruel symmetry to the fact that just as the building was filled, and the team soared further than it ever had, the bottom dropped out, and the players roiled like wild horses. Just when they got the fans to love hockey, they gave them a reason to hate it. Just when you thought the NHL could not screw Glendale any more, they managed to do it again. As the Coyotes took the ice there was a woman holding a sign that read, “We Love U Always.” We’ll see if it was a goodbye.

It’s a lesson Carroll's mother taught him early in life: ‘When you go out the house, you gotta make sure you represent your family looking good'

No Canada: How we lost our game

For the first time since 1970, there will be no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs this year. In a six-part series, Postmedia News looks into the reasons for Canadian teams’ on-ice woes, from the Canadian dollar to players’ aversion to the media fishbowl.

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